2015 rerelease of the 1995 first release in the Muslimgauze subscription series, with updated artwork. Edition of 500. Izlamaphobia starts with an aggressive blast, "Hudood ordinance." With a rhythm track consisting of extremely tweaked and processed electronic beats and bleeps and only the gentlest of Arabic string instruments deep in the mix to relate things to a more familiar Muslimgauze sound, the song sets the general mood for the rest of Izlamaphobia. This said, Bryn Jones's specific talent was such that even without that, this would still sound like him, his trademark care and obsessiveness in terms of percussion again evident. With a variety of romanticized (some might say stereotypical) song titles like "The eternal illusionist of oid Bachdad" and "Lahore morphine market," Izlamaphobia has two chief artistic themes, if anything. On the one hand, Jones's incorporation of hip-hop and funk beats was never stronger than on Izlamaphobia, providing songs like "Gilded madrasa" and "The public flogger of Lahore" with a wickedly fierce kick and drive. On the other, the strained, alien treatments on many of the songs would be right at home on innumerable Warp Records releases of the '90s, with squelching rhythms, undanceable dance tracks, and, quite unsurprisingly, a desire to avoid expected techno clichés. With these two strains combined on many songs by Jones, the results are wonderfully slamming, strange tracks such as "Khadija and fereshta." Not everything is quite so dramatically different from other Muslimgauze releases, with the incorporation of multilayered acoustic percussion cropping up more than once, such as on "Hijab muzzle." Everything is just that little bit dirtier in sound, though, and all the more intriguing for it.

Sonically, Bryn Jones's work as Muslimgauze often pulled in two directions at the same time. The one, towards what fans of Can might call an "ethnographic" kind of practice, especially with his use of vocal samples and percussion instruments from the Middle East and other regions of the world Jones was so interested in (obsessed by?). The other is toward, for lack of more polite phrasing, harshly fucked-up digital noise and beats. Many interesting Muslimgauze releases tend more toward that ethnographic side or find a middle ground between the two impulses, but few of his records slide so much towards the other end of the spectrum as does 1996's Uzbekistani Bizzare and Souk. Aside from the vocal loop/Amen break duet of "Rouge Amin Fraction," the songs here found Jones focusing much more on the electronic music elements always present in his work as Muslimgauze, ranging from the watery, dubby tones that show up on "The Iranian Who Found Allah" and parts of the suite-like "Paper Gulag" through the harsh trebles of "Cafkir Ma Higra" (which bring to mind Aphex Twin's "Ventolin") to the dense digital-sleet-storm of closer "Leboneeze." Elsewhere, tracks like "Cafkir Wa Hig" and "Harijana" serve as master classes in Jones's expertise at twisting his beats and patterns until they practically shred (both themselves and, if you're not careful, the speakers). Uzbekistani Bizzare and Souk was originally issued by Staalplaat on DAT in 1996, and was reissued on CD by Important Records in 2002; this is its first vinyl release. A tough, rigorous set of some of Jones's most beat-focused work as Muslimgauze. Limited edition of 500.

2009 release. Part of Staalplaat's ongoing Muslimgauze archive series, Sycophant of Purdah was submitted in 1994 then "replaced" by another master Bryn Jones felt more fit for release. Sycophant then languished in the vaults until its first CD release in 2009, a decade after Jones's passing in 1999. Sycophant opens with a radio broadcast on the ongoing Palestinian crisis set to breakbeats and marmalade-thick bass lines; the forward to another sonic treatise on struggles of the Muslim world. Tracks that follow are more consistent with industrial stylings of the Muslimgauze oeuvre including Zealot (1994), Blue Mosque (1994), Silknoose (1995), and Izlamaphobia (1995). Industrial, in the context of Muslimgauze, is often characterized by tightly woven percussion loops with scant variance while melodies hover. Additionally, tracks like "Radif Avaz and Dastgah" and "Mossad Evil" are another facet of industrial, in the classic sense of the word, meaning "mechanical", "machine-like," with little in the way of melodic overtones. The commonality is rigorous, dogmatic structure that is nonetheless hypnotic and engaging. Because the above albums vary, despite being of the same sub-genre, Sycophant could be considered a "missing link" that ties them together -- with ethno-breaks added for variance. None of the track listings, handwritten by Jones, are repeated on any other release, hence Sycophant of Purdah is a must-have for fans and collectors. Limited edition of 500.

2009 release. Sulaymaniyah is part of Staalplaat's ongoing Muslimgauze archive series. The masters were originally submitted in 1997, then "replaced" by what became Vampire of Tehran, released early in 1998. It was not uncommon for the prolific Bryn Jones to replace masters with what he believed to be a more fit release. Short of two tracks, "Fez Tishan" and "Hamas Pulse of Revenge," this is Vampire of Tehran with nine additional, previously unreleased tracks. Because Sulaymaniyah was "replaced," it was stored in Staalplaat's vaults until its first CD release in 2009, a decade after Jones's passing in 1999, and it will take several more years before Staalplaat has completely caught up with additional "replaced" and unreleased masters. Sulaymaniyah is stylistically varied, with ethno-electro, ethno-breakbeat, and several dub cuts. Ethno-electro/breaks are analogous to urban dance/hip hop, with catchy, distortion-ridden breaks and heavily edited ethnic music, cut up and reassembled into Frankenstein hybrids, sometimes further complicated with dub elements. Wanton mixtures of styles are one of many defining qualities of Muslimgauze music. Like "replaced" masters, versions of tracks such as "Arabs Improved Zpain" and "Arabs Return Zpain" demonstrate Jones's near obsessive search for the right sound. For those who appreciate the later rhythmic ethno-breaks and dub phase of Muslimgauze circa Tandoori Dog, Sulaymaniyah is a must-have. Limited edition of 500.

Originally released in 2003. This is a mostly beat-driven album with little background noise, ambient space, or reverb. There is also no big emphasis on Middle Eastern sounds, which (and you should be figuring this out by now) is a frequently occurring theme in Bryn Jones' politically-driven music. Occasionally, there is some melodic material, or a touch of the Middle East sprinkled in, but it's played down in favor of beats that could best be described as very raw and closer to early Autechre minimalism than something from the World Beat genre. Hiccupping along, distorted break beats sound like they were once made from real drums, but Mr. Jones has turned the gain up way too high and ripped the drums to shreds. Since then, they've been heavily tweaked, turned into glitches, bloops, and blips. A downbeat gets set, only for it to sound like someone hit pause on the CD player. Machine-like loops reminiscent of Krautrock repetitiveness suck me in, only to be shut off without warning. As the beat finally starts to seduce me and I realize I could happily listen to the same repetitive thing for the duration of the CD, the plug gets pulled and the beat is deprived of oxygen just as it finally proved it could "groove." Each title is a page in the Iranair inflight magazine. The title of track 3 comes from a passage of a Sunday Times article (October 4, 1998) about Bin Laden's men infiltrating the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Iranair Inflight Magazine was made towards the end of Bryn Jones' life and in addition to countless others (this man must have recorded about an album a week), has only recently been released for the first time. Record labels were simply not able to keep up with the prolific Jones while he was alive. CD digipack. Limited edition of 700 copies.

Some of the tracks on Feel the Hiss, a release Bryn Jones recorded live to cassette in early 1995 but never had the chance to remix and polish before he died, use the same kinds of devotional voices found on much of Minaret Speaker (ARCHIVE 029CD), but here other voices are present too. Conversational or angry, male or female, English or French or Arabic, almost inaudible or forcing their way to the front of the music, these "Zilver Tracks" (the name based on a note Jones wrote on the tape) engage more directly with the world Jones was so fascinated with and tried to represent over and over again in his work as Muslimgauze. If, like most listeners, you only speak one or two languages, the content on Feel the Hiss can be just as inscrutable as anything Jones has put out. But the music, luckily, is also just as wonderful; for a set of demos recorded live to tape, the Feel the Hiss material certainly comes across as fully-formed, if a bit more reflective and synthesizer-heavy than much of his oeuvre. The lengthy "Zilver Track 4," especially, seems at times like a tour around the embattled regions of the world Jones was so passionate about, complete with echoing percussion, voices in various languages, even train sounds. Not that this is Muslimgauze's answer to The KLF's Chill Out, by any stretch of the imagination; the dark, shimmering "Zilver Track 1" is as compellingly propulsive as any of his songs. It's possible that if Jones had gone back to this tape his changes would have brought it more in line with other Muslimgauze releases, but as it is Feel the Hiss is a chance to experience the more contemplative side of his work.

While the human voice has often been an element in Bryn Jones' work as Muslimgauze, rarely did he highlight it as much as in Minaret Speaker, the latest in the Muslimgauze Archive Series, and its concurrent release, Feel the Hiss (ARCHIVE 030CD). While elements of Minaret Speaker appeared on the 7" of the same name released by Staalplaat in 1996, much of the strongest material here is previously unheard. Jones' normal practice was to send in tapes to the label with only a title for each tape as a whole, then provide individual track titles before each release. Sadly, with his passing in 1999, there remain many projects with only album titles -- barring a séance, the tracks themselves will always remain untitled. The material on Minaret Speaker can be broken into two groups: the first, the ten tracks that make up the bulk of this release, make clear immediately why Jones picked that title for the album, with the ten-minute "Minaret Speaker Track 1" serving as a duo for his trademark digitally distorted percussion loops and what certainly sounds like a recording of a call to prayer, or adhān. The voices on the tracks here are ones that may well have come out of an actual minaret speaker at some point. On these tracks, as the musical backing gets harsher and more distorted, the voices reach toward deliverance; the results, even on wordless interludes like the string-based "Bamboo Bound," can seem more approachable than other Muslimgauze works. The four "Rest Tracks" that make up the end of this release form a brief bonus EP of even-lower-fidelity-than-normal works in progress from Jones, with "Rest Track 1" immediately sounding like Jones putting his own work through some new contortions. At times this material gets and fuzzed- and dubbed-out as anything in the Muslimgauze discography, a perfect accompaniment to the mix of soaring and pulverizing music found on the rest of the album.

1996 release. Manchester-based Muslimgauze is one of the most uncompromising artists the music biz has ever seen. His music is as extreme as the political motivation that goes with it. For more than 15 years, Muslimgauze produced rhythmic music that defies any description. Sometimes lush ambient dub textures, sometimes fierce ethno rhythms. The events in the Middle East was his main inspiration. Organizations such as Hezbollah can find Muslimgauze among their supporters. Many of today's musicians owe a great deal to the Muslimgauze sound. That's why Staalplaat invited a host of groups from today's techno, house and related scene to take the extreme work of Muslimgauze and give that work dancefloor abilities. The reactions were overwhelming and the music goes in many directions. Therefore, Staalplaat present (with pride!) a double CD. Disc One ("Occupied Beats") takes you onto the dancefloor with the dubby music of O Yuki Conjugate and their off-shoots Sons Of Silence and Clicka, Drome, Extremadura, the fucked-up jungle of Self-Transforming Elves and the straightforward, house-y remixes of Human Beings, Elke Dag (who have a connection with Exquisite Corpse) or LØSD. The second disc ("Occupied Frequencies") goes straight into weirdness, emphasizing the moody and atmospheric side of Muslimgauze, in remixes by Nonplace Urban Field, Zoviet*france and Quest. Also with the extremeness of People Like Us, Starfish Pool and the master himself, Occupied Territories is a remix tribute to one of the strongest voices in music.

2004 release. The excellent Black September, a continuous, five-part, 68-minute epic, is as formidably competent as ever, although more for the brooding, surreal nature of its soundworld than for its grooves, which here sound almost subsidiary. The soul samples and restlessly evolving minor-chord kaleidoscopes that unfold throughout the work is prima facie evidence of a musician on a roll. Boldly named after one of the most notorious Palestinian terrorist organizations, the group which carried out the Israeli Olympic athlete massacre in 1972, September matches its dark black artwork and design with equally doom-laden music (mastered as one track, despite the five separate song titles listed on the back). The title-track relies on a slightly more gentle ominousness, with soft string-plucking reverberating around the beat, but things start to pick up accordingly with the more aggressive, sharp-edged electronics shading into a tense blend of percussion and energy on "Libya"; after shading away into a more minimal midsection, the track returns at a nervous, quick pace, with drums and drum pads firing off echoes into the mix as drones snake in and out of the song. One particularly gripping section has shards of noise firing off in all directions before settling back into the frazzled energy of the central beat, feeling like a soundtrack to a particularly good chase scene in a movie. "Thuggee" and its accompanying remix keep the unsettled edge up, with sudden drum and electronic pulse intrusions erupting over the main flow of the songs. It's interesting to hear how Bryn Jones' love of dub applies itself in even more creative and different ways than from his productions of some years before, exchanging the slow pace for a fast one and applying Krautrock drone principles. A nicely stretched-out, creepy remix of Gun Aramaic's "Opiate and Mullah" wraps up this fine effort.

2004 release. Instead of the drones and mostly beatless atmospheres of many previous Muslimgauze recordings, Zuriff Moussa presents quite a danceable switch for Bryn Jones. Dedicated to a Palestinian martyr, the album sounds like a cleaner version of Techno Animal, with Eastern influences instead of dub. "Turkquoize Label" and "Brazil Marijuana" are surprisingly infectious, with distorted breakbeats and the patented Muslimgauze phased-channel drone. There are 24 tracks spread across more than an hour, so there isn't a large amount of time for each track, though several are presented in suites, like "Anti Arab America." For messed-up beat fans who are able to find it, Zuriff Moussa is close to a crucial purchase.